Corruption

A Changeling Problem

Arone walked down the silent halls of Chanterlot castle and took a moment to look outside. His eyes traveled from the rising moon, to Princess Luna on her balcony raising it, down to the Library building attached to the castle. He saw the faint glow of flickering light, probably coming from a lamp. Arone considered how he hadn't seen Bini in a couple of days and she had locked herself into the Library. Claiming she was doing research on a secret project.

He galloped to save time across the castle and managed to reach the double doors to the Library in record time. Arone softly knocked on the door and received no response. Arone was beginning to feel a bit concerned and opened the door slowly.

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STARSWIRL THE BEARDED JOURNAL 11

Experiment 088

I have made a terrible mistake. I created a monster. It was supposed to be a straightforward experiment. Like any experiment, it had its risks. But...I never imagined it would turn out like this. The experiment went like this, I had collected dark energy from a cave deep outside the borders of Equestria. (I will not say its location to avoid contamination for others who may find this and read this when I am long gone.)

It all happened in five days. I had put five subjects into isolated cells deep within my castle. I made sure that the servants entertained Celestia and Luna as I had to give these subjects my complete attention. I put the dark energy into the cells on day one. The subjects seemed agitated but overall fine. On the second day, they started to argue with themselves. On the third day, they started to become violent. Some bashed their heads against the wall of the cell. Screaming at an unknown figure that they wanted to be free. On the fourth day, they started to die. Three died from pain. According to the biopsy.

The fifth day, the monster was created. The bodies had been removed from the cells the previous day, so there were only two subjects left. The first subject succumbed to insanity and bashed their head so many times, so hard that they bled to death. The subject...Sombra. The last one remaining started laughing maniacally. His eyes turned from the dark brown pupils he had before. His crystal coat faded away to pure dark gray with a flowing dark mane.

T-The thing melded itself with that pony and created a pure evil monster. He blasted through the cell with the new power he had obtained. I was able to hold him off with my magic. He may be powerful, but I have studied magic all my life. I wasn't able to subdue him. Only slightly weaken him despite my power.

I had used a banishing spell that took me years to master through delicate training and research. I banished him to the icy north in the crystal caves. He wrecked part of the castle. Luna and Celestia's memories had to be wiped of the event. I couldn't risk them finding out the horrible action that I had done. I created a monster.

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Bini stared at the book in front of her. She had read through ten journals and finally reached the one that Rose warned the Princess about. Bini sort of understood how it was a danger. If Celestia read the entry and figured out where this "Dark energy" was, she, in her haste to destroy it, might unleash it.

Bini groaned and deeply regretted what she had read. She slammed her head against the desk in her office deep within the castle. She deserved it. She knew she should have not read that book. Those books. Damn her. She slammed it shut and threw it to the floor as if it was any other book in anger.

She shot her head up to look at the sound of hoofsteps echoing across the room.

"Bini?" Arone called out as he cautiously approached her. "Are you alright?"

Bini scrambled up and galloped towards Arone. Starting to push him towards the door.

"Yes. Yes. Alright. I am fine. Now go, go, go!" She snapped as she continued to shove him towards the door. Arone changed into his original form and flew over Bini to see the contents of the table. She picked up some of the journals to Bini's horror and read the titles.